


I am so afraid of darkness (and down here it’s just like night time)

by isquinnabel



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Hawkins - Freeform, Nightmares, Spatial Rift, Stoneybrook, The Upside Down
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 06:35:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17720006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isquinnabel/pseuds/isquinnabel
Summary: As the line between reality and nightmare becomes increasingly blurred, Claudia meets the only person who might understand what she’s going through.





	I am so afraid of darkness (and down here it’s just like night time)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OzQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OzQueen/gifts).



> Title from Life Line by Harry Nilsson.

The sun was high. The combination of midday heat, a rough bike ride, and a sweater had made Claudia uncomfortably hot. She used to hate being too hot. Now, she welcomed it.

Anything was better than the cold.

\---

It started a month ago. She’d had a nightmare. The sort of nightmare that you didn’t quite shake; a nightmare that lingered uneasily through the day like an upset stomach.

This didn’t happen to her often, but it did happen. Everyone had nightmares. It was perfectly normal.

This was different. This wasn’t normal.

Her skin was crawling, and the air in her lungs felt rotten. She gritted her teeth, turned onto Burnt Hill Road, and pedaled harder.

\---

She’d been to the Rosebud Café with Stacey this morning. She hadn’t been able to stop staring at the counter.

The night before, she’d woken up on Main Street. Most nightmares didn’t have a clear beginning – they just _were_ – but these ones did. Beginning a nightmare was like jolting awake, and Claudia had jolted awake on Main Street, shivering in her thin nightshirt; partly from cold, and partly from an overwhelming sense of dread. As usual, Stoneybrook had been plunged into darkness, with black vines snaked over every surface and frigid air heavy with decay. When the shadow had begun unfurling itself in the distance, she’d turned and ran into the Rosebud, scrambling over the counter and squeezing into a tiny space underneath.

This morning, she should have been eating a butterscotch sundae and gabbing with Stacey. Instead, she’d stared at the exact spot she’d just spent the night; the place she’d curled into a ball, shaking with terror, trying desperately to smother any involuntary whimpers or sobs. The nightmare version of the Rosebud was still there; being awake hadn’t made it go away. She had felt it scratching at the edge of her eyesight, just barely beyond her peripheral vision.

She’d stayed as long as she could stand it, feigned a headache, and gone home. But home was no better. Nowhere was better; the whole town felt like a paper-thin layer of sunshine on top of something dark and solid.

Dark and solid and _growing_.

She needed to escape. So, she’d thrown some art supplies in her backpack, jumped on her bike, and started pedaling.

\---

She didn’t exactly have a destination. She was long past Mary Anne’s house and the Stones’ farm when she got to a left turn, with a sign saying ‘Dell Road’. She had no idea where she was, and taking the turn seemed neither better nor worse than keeping straight, so she took it. All she knew was that she wasn’t technically in Stoneybrook anymore. All she wanted was to get away from the town and this sick fear that wouldn’t leave her alone. She wanted quiet. She wanted to draw.

Dell Road eventually came to a dead end. Rather than turning around, Claudia hopped off her bike and began to walk.

Claudia wasn’t book smart, but she wasn’t stupid – this was unfamiliar woods, so she regularly checked over her shoulder to make sure Dell Road was still visible. The last thing she wanted was to get herself lost.

The trees were different here. They didn’t look quite like the ones that grew in Stoneybrook, which should have been comforting but it wasn’t. If anything, she felt worse. Invisible darkness clung as tightly as ever to the world around her, and the air felt distinctly chillier here. Claudia did not welcome cold air anymore. She glanced back towards the road, considering biking back up Dell, and when she turned to face forward again some boy was standing right in front of her.

Claudia shrieked, and her bike fell to the ground with a crash. He looked just as alarmed as she felt, but his alarm faded into embarrassment as she picked up her bike.

“Uh, hi.”  
“Hi.” Claudia hesitated. “Do you live here?”  
“That house over there.” Claudia hadn’t noticed, but there was a house about fifty yards away, obscured by the trees. “Where do you live? I haven’t seen you around before.”  
Claudia gestured vaguely behind her. “Back that way.” She couldn’t quite bring herself to say ‘Stoneybrook’. The word felt almost poisonous on her tongue.

Claudia and the boy stood in silence for a moment. He seemed tense, like he was preparing to sprint away from her at any moment, and Claudia felt much the same.

“Were you looking for something?”  
“Um, not really.” Claudia paused. “I was kind of looking for someplace to draw.”  
The boy seemed to brighten.  
“There’s tons of good places!” He glanced back towards his house. “But… now’s not really a good time. I’ve got my bike, but my mom is… I mean… she gets worried.”  
He started to look uncomfortable again. But even when embarrassed, his face didn’t turn red. He stayed pale. Claudia attempted a relaxed, normal smile – the kind of smile that the old Claudia would have done perfectly naturally.  
“That’s okay. Here’s fine... I’m Claudia, by the way. I have extra paper if you want to draw too?”  
He gave a small grin.  
“I’m Will. And sure – that would be cool.”  
Claudia sank to her knees, opening her backpack.  
“Can I use your pencils? I have my own stuff, but I’d have to go inside for it.”  
“No,” said Claudia sharply, adding a silent _don’t leave me_. “Use mine.”

Claudia and Will sat on the ground, seated back-to-back: Claudia facing Will’s house, Will facing the woods. They both drew quietly and, after a few uncertain flinches from each of them, they gradually came to rest their weight against each other’s backs. The woods were still; the silence was only broken by the scratching of colored pencils and the occasional birdcall.

Claudia didn’t usually have company while she worked. Ashley was the only exception, but Ashley brought silences that were laden with intensity and focus. Silence with Will felt different. His presence wasn’t comforting, exactly, but it was the closest she’d felt to comfort since the nightmares began.

She still didn’t feel safe. But she felt a little less alone.

She sketched the scene in front of her: Will’s house, and the surrounding woods. But she used a heavier hand than she meant to. Her final picture was laced with dark lines, thick vine-like ropes that held Will’s home in their grip. She shuddered.

“Are you okay?” asked Will.  
“I’m fine. Um, actually, I think I should go home. It’s getting late.”  
She couldn’t see him, but she heard the disappointment in his voice when he answered. “Okay.”

She hid her sketch from his view as she packed up. She felt weird about doing this, until she realized that he was doing exactly the same thing. When she picked up her bike, she gave a genuine, if small, smile.  
“This was fun.”  
“Yeah.” He grinned. “It was. Let’s do it again, okay?”  
“Definitely.”  
Claudia hesitated. It was getting late. But she really, really didn’t want to leave. It wasn’t just because she dreaded returning to Stoneybrook; she hadn’t escaped anything, the nightmare world clawed away at her as sharply as ever. But she wanted to stay with Will. Even for just a little longer.  
“Um… are you okay?”  
“I’m fine,” she said hurriedly. “It’s nothing. Um… I’ll see you later, okay?”  
“See you later,” he agreed. “Bye, Claudia.”  
“Bye, Will.”

She turned and walked her bike back to Dell Road. When she reached the road and climbed back on her bike, she turned around to give Will one last wave. But he was gone. She hadn’t gone very far, but she couldn’t even see his house anymore.

With a heavy sigh, she began pedaling toward home.

\---

_She woke up shivering, in the middle of Slate Street, dread already sinking into her bones. She could feel the shadow unfolding behind her, and she didn’t even bother to look. She just ran._

_She sprinted to the nearest house – the Barretts – and tugged hard on their front door, but it was locked. Her heart rate spiked; she’d never had this problem here. Usually everything was completely open, making the town feel horribly desolate. She grabbed a rusted lawn chair from the yard and, without hesitation, smashed the front window._

_The sound made her wince. She’d never made so much noise before. What if it had heard her? It was too late now – there was no time to run anywhere else. She scrambled through the window. Suzi’s bedroom was the closest. She was about to run upstairs and hide in her closet, but a thump from the second floor made her freeze. Something was up there._

_Claudia wanted to cry. It wasn’t fair! This place was terrifying enough, why did it have to get worse? Without thinking about it, she bolted towards the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. A harsh wind was whipping through the house, and she gripped the handle until her knuckles turned white, desperately praying for it all to end. She would wake up soon, she had to wake up soon._

_She squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to keep from screaming._

\---

Claudia groaned. The last thing she wanted to do was spend Sunday watching movies at Stacey’s, but she couldn’t skip it. She’d flaked on too many things lately.

Leaving the house and walking down Bradford Court made the hair on her arms stand up. She could feel something behind her, watching every step she took, but every time she looked over her shoulder there was nothing there. She shuddered. She wished she could bike to Will’s house today.

She expected to feel sick as she turned onto Slate, and she absolutely did. But she didn’t expect to see a large crack in the Barretts’ front window. She stood frozen on the sidewalk, unable to keep from staring at it.  
“Hi Claudia!” Claudia was very easily startled these days, and her loud reaction to Buddy’s exuberant greeting made him laugh. “Did I scare you?”  
“Yes,” she said wearily.  
“Awesome. I wasn’t even trying!”  
Claudia rubbed her eyes. “Congratulations.”  
“Today I scared Mom, Suzi, _and_ Marnie. Which isn’t hard, but now I’ve scared you too!”  
“Uh, Buddy,” said Claudia. “What happened to your window?”  
Buddy shrugged. “Mom thinks someone threw a rock or something. None of us heard anything, though. I guess we were all asleep.”  
“Yeah,” muttered Claudia. “I guess. I have to go, but I’ll see you later, Buddy.”  
“’Kay! Bye Claudia!”

\---

_She woke up outside the elementary school._

_She turned and ran toward the building as fast as she could, but she was running against the wind and it kept slowing her down. When she finally reached the glass doors of SES’s main entrance, she stumbled inside and nearly fell on her face. It had never taken her so long to get inside before, and the delay made her even more panicked than usual. She knew this building, she’d spent way too many hours in here, but that didn’t make it safe. Nowhere was safe._

_She ran down the hall as fast as she possibly could. She wanted to be in the middle of the building, she needed as much distance as possible between herself and whatever was out there. But when she reached an intersection, something crashed into her and she hit the ground hard._

_She blinked. It took a second to get her bearings; what had hit her?_

_It wasn’t a “what” – it was a “who”. Someone else was here. A boy had come hurtling down the hallway that came from the playground. He stared at Claudia, dumbfounded, and she stared right back._

_“Claudia?”_  
_“Will?”_

_A loud crash echoed down the hall, and Claudia and Will were back on their feet immediately. This wasn’t the time to be regular people. They were prey, and it was time to act like it. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the nurse’s office._  
_“There’s a storage closet in here!” The gale had gotten stronger, and she had to shout to be heard over the roar of the wind. “No windows!”_  
_They squeezed into the closet and slammed the door, gripping tightly to each other’s hands while a nightmare raged around them._

_Claudia still spent the night trying not to scream or cry, and she could feel Will right next to her doing exactly the same thing. Being together didn’t put them in any less danger._

_But, at the very least, it was better than being alone._

\---

The next morning, Claudia wasted no time. She didn’t oversleep, she didn’t eat breakfast, and she didn’t put together an outfit. She just changed into whatever clothes were closest and left. As she bolted through the kitchen, she threw out some quick lie to her family about meeting a study group before school.

She had no intention of going to school that morning. She may have hopped on her bike and started in that direction, just in case someone was watching her, but she quickly doubled back and headed for the edge of town.

It was a long ride down Burnt Hill Road. The morning was still cool, but she quickly began to feel beads of sweat trickling down her back as she pedaled increasingly hard. By the time she reached Dell Road, she was panting. She wished she’d brought water.

She slowed her pace while biking down Dell; she’d nearly made it. Will would be there. He was looking for her too, she knew it. She could feel it as clearly as she could feel the relentless presence of the dead, rotting Stoneybrook underneath the regular one. She squeezed her eyes shut; just for a moment, so she didn’t crash her bike. It was still there. It was always there: almost encroaching on her vision, just barely out of sight.

She felt like she’d been riding for an eternity. She frowned. This didn’t look right. For one thing, there weren’t any woods. Shouldn’t she have reached Will’s house by now?

She’d definitely taken the correct turn. There were no other turns to take! Her unease grew stronger when the road curved sharply to the right – it hadn’t done this on Saturday – and became all-out dread when she reached somebody’s wide front gate, and a mailbox reading “443 Dell Road.”

She stared at the mailbox. This didn’t make any sense. Where was Will?

She turned around and biked back the way she came. Maybe some other road split off from Dell, and that was where she’d gone on Saturday. She ignored the part of her brain that told her there was no such road and went slowly back, keeping a careful eye out for a turnoff.

Before long, she was back at Burnt Hill. She checked the street sign, just to be certain. Sure enough, she hadn’t taken a wrong turn. This was Dell Road.

She bit her lip, and rode slowly back down Dell. She couldn’t remember how long it had taken her to get to Will’s. Ten minutes, maybe? Fifteen? But even after just a minute or two, she could swear that everything was totally different to how it had looked on Saturday.

“Will!” she shouted. It was pointless. She knew it was pointless, but she was desperate. “Will! WILL!”

No answer.

Claudia was exhausted and thirsty. She couldn’t ride up and down Dell all day. Even if she could, there was no point. Will wasn’t here. Wherever he was, she didn’t know how to get there. She swallowed hard, turned around, and biked back towards Burnt Hill.

This far out of town, the world was very quiet. As always, a nightmare lay underneath sounds that should have been soothing: the rustling of leaves, a distant bird, the soft, rhythmic clicks of Claudia’s bike. But, for the first time, Claudia had a plan. She actually wanted the day to be over. She needed to see Will again, she had to talk to him while they were awake. But to do that, she had to know where to find him. She had to _ask_ how to find him. And, apparently, the only place to do that was in a dream.

Something was terrible happening; something unfathomably evil was taking root in Stoneybrook. But she wasn’t alone anymore.

Together, maybe they could figure out how to stop it.


End file.
